With a sharp grinding sound and the release of sparks, Mifune's blade made it through Herriman's armor field, his hit scoring nowhere particularly vital but still leaving a wound across Herriman's side. Herriman's momentum took him forwards and away from Mifune, and he wheeled around, turning to face him. He glanced down at his side, and huffed.

"Slippery bastard..." Herriman muttered to himself, feeling his virulent black blood running down his side in small, individual rivers. He needed to play this defensively, wear Mifune out. "...come on!" He shouted, adopting a defensive stance

A feminine voice from the stands caught his ear, and one of the eyes on his back saw Priroda, standing there. Was she cheering him on? It felt strange. Normally, when he killed someone, he was used to them staying dead, not coming back minutes later to cheer him on in a fight.

Mifune carried through with the strike opening up a gash along Herriman's side. As he stepped past and turned to once again face Herriman the latter he was shouted at. Mifune showed no emotion or even recognition of this and simply started walking towards Herriman. "You are arrogant, abrasive, volatile, and an abomination. You lack honor and you kill merely for pleasure, thus making you a monster. I will purge you from this world." Mifune said in a calm level voice. His sword was once again in its sheath and ready to be drawn at incredible speed. "Come now reckless beast meet your death at the end of my sword." Mifune taunted Herriman while assuming a backstance.

"Kill for pleasure?! You've only seen me kill ONCE, you delusional fool! I fight to prove myself, and to serve my god! I've clawed my way to championhood over the course of a century, I've sacrificed EVERYTHING to be the champion of my god. How did you get your power? You laid with a wolf woman!" came Herriman's retort. It was obvious he was starting to get extremely worked up. For all intents and purposes, Herriman was right, and the crowd was rallying behind him. With a roar of fury, Herriman began charging forwards, seemingly caught up in some kind of blind rage. His body burst into flames that shimmered with the entire spectrum, leaving a trail of distorted air and scorched earth as he charged thunderously towards Mifune.

What was seemed like a charge blinded by rage, however, was only a disguise for a great deception. The flames were merely an illusion, completely concealing the energy he was building up to phase out as he charged with wild abandon.

Mifune didn't attempt to draw his sword or attack instead he simply started walking sideways. This would make the warrior run in a curve slowing him immensely. The entire time Mifune simply waited for his opponents attack not bothering to launch his own and keeping himself completely ready to dodge or parry.

Herriman was able to spot Mifune starting to move aside, and began to compensate early. Although he wouldn't have to turn drastically in order to attack him, his momentum and speed were still diminished from not being able to run in a straight line. As he approached at just over three quarters of his original speed (a weak charge in a mortal man's hands, but fast enough that someone with Herriman's strength could still salvage something from it), Herriman started winding up with his pincer arm and his axe arm, essentially coming at Mifune with one arm wound backwards, pointing towards Mifune and the other raised firmly in the air, ready to come down on top of him.

Krix, wearing a tan leather vest of fine make and common model over his usually bare torso and pants to match, leaned heavily on the guardrail surrounding the arena pit as he watched the match below, keen eyes drinking in every detail as the two opponents clashed. The smaller one was fast, to be sure, fast enough even to blur his weapon's movements to the blacksmith's keen eyes. Not a feat easily accomplished. He huffed in disappointment when the larger creature felt it necessary to call upon a boon from his patron, surely such a warrior could fight his own battles, could he not? Then he raised his eyebrows slightly in admiration of the feats the creature espoused for gaining his power. Krix's own rise to prominence had followed a similar path and left many a warrior broken and defeated behind him. He knew what it was like to pay your way in blood, or whatever it was that oozed from the wound opened by the speedster's blade.

Of the two opponents, his assessment placed the greater threat in the hands, or perhaps appendages would be a better term, of the form-changing beast. While the fox had great speed, that alone would not be enough to overcome the blacksmith and a metal sword would be little threat to him in the end. It was the monster's magic and affinity for forming weaponry from his own body that would prove the greater threat. Speed and swords were known factors. They could be planned for and countered. It was the breadth of unknown threats in the larger combatants powers that concerned him the most.

A voice to one side caught his attention, and he turned briefly to discover its source, then turned again to regard the woman a second time immediately after. Was that not the girl that had just been vanquished only moments ago? He knew that the combatants here would not remain dead if that was a condition of their defeat, so it was not her presence that had surprised him. Rather, it was the fact that she seemed to be cheering for the warrior who had just slain her. Strange indeed...

Mifune took a single stride forward leading with hi right foot coming to Herriman's right side (the one with the hook). As his foot touched the ground he turned and used laido again to aim a slash at the exact spot he had struck Herrriman earlier, aiming to open a deeper wound and slow the other warrior down. As he used Laido he increased his speed and lunged backwards to get back out of his opponents melee range and behind him. To all those watching it would appear as if mifune had stepped turned and slashed while leaping backwards and then readied himself again.

Hook, line, and sinker. Herriman never considered himself much of a fisherman, but it was a hell of a catch he was about to make. Mifune's blade looked like it was dead on course, but as soon as it was a mere hair's breadth away from cutting deep into Herriman's side, Herriman simply...ceased. The energy he had been building up reached its peak, mostly thanks to Mifune delaying the charge. Without a flash, without a noise, Herriman disappeared from the face of the arena.

He reappeared just behind Mifune as the warrior was midway into his leap, a mere half-second after disappearing. When he reappeared, it was also without sound or flash, and he had his momentum restored. He had taken all the extra time he had bought by building up energy to regain his momentum while he was phased out of time and space, and it was with this momentum the he intended to bury his axe into Mufine's spine, the weapon already halfway down by the time he had reappeared.

As Herriman disappeared and reappeared behind him Mifune could hear the mans swing. Unfortunately for Herriman, Mifune was moving to fast for his axe to hit him and merely swished down in his wake carrying Herriman forward. His right foot planting as planned Mifune simply pushed off it pivoting and performed a laido slash at Herriman's neck at point blank range. With the mans axe arm down and his claw arm behind him, even if he could see the attack there would be no way for him to block in time, at least not with his arms.

(I'll just go with this post, Dral)

If there was ever one thing that Herriman wasn't, it was a mathematician. Now, Mifune was behind him, and he was just coming out an axe swing. Herriman had to think quickly, and he did so with his shoulders. The beast pelt he wore on his back for its magical protection covered a great deal of his shoulders and lower neck, so he wouldn't have to raise his arms to block the incoming strike, just shrug his shoulders upwards to put the beast pelt between him and Mifune's blade. Being the source of Herriman's magical armor, th beast pelt was much sturdier than the ragged sheet of animal skin it appeared to be, and it actually worked in deflecting the blade, Herriman being just quick enough to cause the blade to skid across the top of the pelt.

Herriman wheeled around, the joint of the pincer arm distending itself as the whole thing went from claw to flail as Herriman swung it. He'd follow this up with a projectile from his axe, as he stepped backwards, a horizontal wave of energy that mimicked the shape of the axe's blade.

Being in midair from the slash Mifune couldn't dodge the pincer, and with the claw coming all he could do was raise the scabbard of his sword for protection. The impact sent him flying and he landed on his back luckily the tsuba had taken the majority of the impact, but he was still somewhat jarred. As he rose Herriman fired a projectile from his axe which Mifune opted to simply duck underneath as it flew towards him. Next he sheathed his blade and waited for Herriman's next move.

(Oh my god, so sorry I haven't posted yet! I thought the post I made went up, but apparently it didn't!)

Herriman looked over at Mifune. Fool him once, and all that. The flail-arm continued developing, until it resembled the end of a ball and chain flail. From his collar, a growth of flesh and bone protruded like a neck-guard, and his ribs distended and jutted out through his skin, widening forming a secondary layer of bone and chitin to protect the vitals in his chest.

The blade of Setrak warped and twisted, lengthening into something more akin to a single edged sword than an axe. From Herriman's feet, a steady pulse started to shake the ground five feet around him. With every pulse, the earth around him twisted dramatically (like the reflection in a carnival mirror) before returning to normal. "Come to me, samurai." Herriman said, twirling his sword in his hand.

"Im not stupid, only a fool rushes blindly into an attack" Mifune replied in an even voice. it appears that my laido shall not be enough, i will have to use the most rudimentary of forms Mifune though drawing his blade and gripping it with both hands. His feet spread out into an even back stance and he leveled the point on his opponents face as he held the sword extended in front of his body in a basic kendo guard.

"Only a coward waits for his opponent, unwilling to face him upon an even battlefield. You dishonor your ancestors." Herriman growled as he started walking towards Mifune, swinging his flail arm around and around at his side to give it momentum. As he walked, some more cracking and squelching could be heard as he mutated some more, but from Mifune's perspective, nothing changed. In fact, he had grown some extendable spikes of bone on his back, but his beast pelt hid them from view.

"Come, prove to me that you're a warrior worthy of my respect. Prove it, in front ALL THESE SPECTATORS!" Herriman said, his voice building up to a yell as he quite purposefully turned his back to Mifune (but he disguised it as a temporary moment of overconfidence).

"your insults hint at your true intelligence, which must be very little. You cannot fool me with such a desperate ploy for battle now either surrender or attack, either way shall end in your defeat." Mifune once again said coldly His stance remained the same, but he slightly offset the katana's blade to the left.

Herriman laughed, turning back around. "Well, I guess I have my answer then. Know that if you strike me down today, It's because you fought like a mongrel with its leg caught in a trap." He said with grim finality. Swinging his flail-arm faster and faster, Herriman broke into another run towards Mifune, charging defiantly at him yet again. Except this time, the attack would come much sooner. When Herriman was fifteen feet away, he adjusted the swing angle on his flail-arm. With a mighty heft and the sounds of tendons snapping, Herriman's flail arm came loose just as he entered another swing with it, flying straight forwards towards Mifune at breakneck speed while still attached to his forearm by an almost fifteen foot long chain. Given the length of the bony, disgusting chain of the weapon, Herriman could chain this thrust into another attack, which is exactly what he did.

After the initial attack, Herriman would wheel about, allowing the momentum of his fleshy flail to assist him as he'd bring it around for a horizontal swing. With these attack's Herriman would remain out of Mifune's reach. The only problem was, there was a good chance his flail-arm would be useless if Mifune closed in, so he'd be down an arm for the next turn.

Instead of attempting to dodge both attacks Mifune simply sidestepped the first then brought the blade of his katana down on the "chain" cutting through it. The remaining part soared off into the distance as Mifune drove his sword through the remnants of the chain pinning it to the ground. "Is that the best you've got?" Mifune said.

Herriman didn't reply, instead preferring to not let Mifune finish speaking. If the situation a more conventionally sized ball and chain weapon, Herriman would've been slower on the draw, but since the chain on this one was so long, Herriman was already oriented towards Mifune by the time he had cut the chain. As soon as Mifune pinned it to the ground with his sword, the link he had impaled tightened around the blade, and Herriman lashed upwards and towards himself with the mutated muscles on his shoulder that allowed him to swing the whole thing, intent on pulling the blade up from the ground and into the air, hopefully with Mifune in tow.

As the chain was pulled Mifune rushed forward ripping his sword form the ground as he did so. With Herriman pulling the chain upward Mifune had to rush forward at full speed. This not only allowed him to keep his sword firmly in his hands and keep him on his feet it also allowed him to capitalize on Herriman's movement. As the arm came up as Well as the chain not only did Mifune manage to keep up he more rushed forward so that the chain trailed along behind him rushing at the side that had Herriman's mutated arm. Just as he was about to hit the patch of mutated ground Mifune jumped just enough to let his feet brush above the ground. Should he need he could replant them, but his momentum would carry him forward into a fatal thrust directly at Herriman's heart. Mifune would be moving at his top speed by the time he reached Herriman.

Herriman saw Mifune begin to pick up speed in order to keep his sword in his hands, and smiled internally. He couldn't smile externally, since he'd lost that ability with his humanity. The chain link was still locked tightly around Mifune's blade, so Mifune would have even less control than he thought he could ever posess. The sound of tendons and muscles tightening signaled something else, and the chain started to build tension at the base, the arm that served as the flail bulging as the muscles rearranged themselves to make way for the tension being built.

As Mifune drew closer, Herriman swung the arm attached to Mifune's sword by the chain off to the side at a dramatic and extreme angle, the chain practically explosively detaching as it rocketed off to the side. If having a fifteen foot chain of mutated bone and chitn (which was the exact opposite of light) attached to your blade was bad enough, now that heavy chain was flying off to the side at breakneck speed. If Mifune would try to correct his blade's course, the chain would reverberate backwards towards him, striking him in the back at worst, or throwing off his aim in the other direction at best. Given the massive speeds at which Mifune was traveling, it would no doubt be difficult to correct his blade, since it would become a flat surface against all that wind resistance.

To take advantage of this no doubt unexpected ruination of his aim, Herriman merely turned his body so Mifune's blade (if it even hit) would strike at a 45 degree angle, enough to glance off of the extra protection he had placed there. To combine this angling of his body, Herriman also held out Setrak point-first once he was sure Mifune's velocity was irreversible, and waited.